so earlier in the war and national cemeteries were established at alexandria, virginia and at the old soldier's home in northwest washington. they were planned to accommodate all those who died in the washington area hospitals. what happened was that the war went on much longer and was much bloodier than anybody expected so we pretty soon filled up the graveyards, the national cemeteries at alexandria, and that the old soldier's home in washington. they needed new burial space. so the quartermaster's office of the union army looked across the river and found this place, arlington, and thought it would be a good place to begin burying people. arlington happen to be the home of robert e. lee, the confederate general. so not only was in a convenient place to begin military burials for the civil war, i was also fell to be a matter of justice, maybe even vindication if you want to call it that. to force military burials at arlington came in may of 1864, well into the civil war. and the very first of those barrels was private 67 pennsylvania infantry named william crist men. he was a farmer